Armstrong takes over as Wheat Kings’ GM

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This article was published 24/08/2016 (3566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Wheat Kings have hired veteran hockey executive Grant Armstrong as their new general manager.

A 54-year-old product of North Delta, B.C., Armstrong spent the last four seasons with the Victoria Royals as assistant GM and director of player personnel after four seasons as the head scout for the Portland Winterhawks.

Armstrong, who will arrive in Brandon on Sunday, is looking forward to the new challenge after meeting head coach David Anning, director of scouting Darren Ritchie and new assistant GM Mick McCrimmon last week during a visit to the city.

“We’re already talking about the requirements, the needs and how we can make things come to fruition at some point,” Armstrong said. “The work has begun and I’m excited to get to Brandon and get entrenched in the community.”

He will be replacing Kelly McCrimmon as GM after the Wheat King owner took a job as assistant general manager with the National Hockey League expansion franchise in Las Vegas.

But the team won’t be without a McCrimmon in the front office; 30-year-old Mick was hired as assistant GM. He will be involved in scouting bantam and Western Hockey League games as part of his hockey operations work, and also involved in business operations.

In Victoria, Armstrong’s duties included co-ordinating scouting operations, helping develop the 50-man protected player list and recruitment. The Royals were the top team in the WHL during the regular season last year, losing in seven games in the second round of the playoffs to the Kelowna Rockets.

“Grant has a real proven background as an evaluator, as a scout,” Kelly McCrimmon said. “He’s been part of two organizations that have had a lot of success … He’s a person working in our league right now who’s ready to be a general manager, whether that opportunity was going to come in Brandon or elsewhere. He’s ready; his time is now to take that next step.”

McCrimmon spoke with Victoria owner Graham Lee and general manager Cam Hope in early August prior to contacting Armstrong less than two weeks ago. Both provided glowing recommendations.

Armstrong said part of his job in Victoria was to know the league so he has a good sense of a Brandon roster that has lost a number of key contributors after the team captured the WHL title in May against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

“I don’t see Brandon as a team in a rebuild,” Armstrong said. “I see a team that just needs to make subtle adjustments. The key components are there, the skill, the talent, the drive. I look at it as similar to what we had in Victoria. It’s the unfinished business.

“A great year capped off by losing the Memorial Cup is something that is wonderful to have but I know that to a player, everybody feels that there’s more to be done and another goal to strive for.”

Armstrong was originally hired by Victoria in 2012 as director of player personnel, but was promoted during the summer of 2014 to assistant general manager, player personnel.

Prior to his work in the WHL, he coached the North Delta Devils junior B team of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League while also serving as director of hockey operations for the North Vancouver Minor Hockey Association.

“I still plan on being a scouting GM,” Armstrong said of his new job. “That’s really important to me and that was really important to Kelly. I think it’s a perfect fit.”

It will also allow him a chance to get home occasionally. His wife, who is nearing retirement in her job, will be staying in B.C. for now.

Their sons are adults.

Armstrong actually has Manitoba roots in Morden, where his parents and grandparents lived.

It would be an understatement to suggest that Mick McCrimmon has ties to the Wheat Kings. The recent law school graduate grew up around the team that his father Kelly purchased in 2000.

He’s spent the summer scouting national camps, which will be a big part of his job. While he will remain based in Winnipeg, he expects to spend a significant amount of time in Brandon when it doesn’t conflict with scouting work.

“It’s a chance to reintegrate myself in the game, be part of a team and ignite my competitive spirit that has been idle for the time in which I was in school,” said McCrimmon, who played junior A hockey in Manitoba, B.C. and in the U.S. “It also gives me a chance to apply what I’ve learned in hockey and in academia for my entire life. It’s a chance to translate theory into practice and be tested in a practical way.”

Kelly McCrimmon said his son understands the game well and has good insight, adding Mick will have lots to learn but should be a quick study.

With training camp set to take to the ice on Wednesday, the new hockey operations will have to come together quickly.

Kelly McCrimmon was happy to finally have the final pieces in place after the August remaking of the team’s hockey operations following both he and former director of scouting Wade Klippenstein leaving for work in the NHL.

“Until you get the final piece in place, in this case the leader of the organization, until that’s buttoned down and confirmed there’s always some uneasiness, at least from my standpoint, to make sure we bring the right guy in,” McCrimmon said. “We have to put everyone in a position to be successful. I feel real good about it that we’ve done that.”

ICINGS: A pair of forwards are expected at camp next week who may surprise some onlookers. Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League scoring leader Bradly Goethals, who had committed to play college hockey at Bemidji State, will attend, as will Tak Anholt, the third piece of a trade in 2014 that brought Macoy Erkamps and Reid Duke from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Anholt was briefly with the team last season before returning home for personal reasons.

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